Why does American health care rank towards the bottom when compared to other industrialized nations?

Question

Why does American health care rank towards the bottom when compared to other industrialized nations?

Answer 1

Justgoodfolk...your missing something.  Low birth weight infants are not counted against the “live birth” statistics for many countries reporting low infant mortality rates.  Incase you haven't noticed, the US uses a ton of technology to try to save the baby, but runs the bigger chance of the baby not surviving.  And in most cases, what you say about socialism sounds good on paper but doesn't work when applied in real life.

Answer 2

Because 47 million people do not have insurance. Go to a Hospital without insurance and see what they will do for you.No Chemo,No open heat surgery as these are considered elective. All we want is affordable insurance not free or Government run Health care. Can most of you pay at the middle,$900.00 a month with a 5 or 10 thousand deductible per year with no prescription insurance? How about the ones who are uninsurable!!! We are not lazy,we fall between the cracks.

Answer 3

Where we rank low is in preventable death. We are actually number one in emergency medicine. The reason is obvious. We do not have nationalized health care and therefore people do not always go to the doctor when they should. This is indeed tragic, but it also begs the question. Who is responsible for you? In my opinion the answer is you! I do believe that you are entitled to quality health care and this is indeed available already whether you can pay or not. I do not believe that you are entitled to have every bit of your health care, beyond emergency requirements, directly subsidized by every tax paying citizen.

Answer 4

It doesn't.  Per capita numbers games are a myth and I think you know it.

I usually don't resort to mundane comments like "if you don't like it, you should move".  However, in this case, I'm compelled to make an exception because, you seem to be suggesting that there is some organized force in place to put our lives in danger and that was exactly why people left Europe to come here years ago.

If you think that our heath care system is so marginal that your life or at least your quality of life is in danger, you should run as fast as you can.  I don't think you really believe that and are quite grateful to be living at the source of the greatest strides in medicine in world history.

Answer 5

First a few facts.

In terms of the human development index, the United States has fallen from second place in 1990 (behind Canada) to 12th place. This decline continued through both the Clinton and Bush administrations, with the US falling to sixth in 1995, ninth in 2000, and 12th in 2005.

In certain respects, the decline is even worse. The US is 34th in infant mortality—with a level comparable to Croatia, Estonia, Poland and Cuba. US school children perform significantly below their counterparts in countries like Canada, France, Germany and Japan, and 14 percent of the population, some 40 million people, lack basic literacy and number skills.

Of the world’s 30 richest nations, which comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States has the highest proportion of children living in poverty, 15 percent, and the most people in prison, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the whole population. With five percent of the world’s population, the US has 24 percent of the world’s prisoners.

The report notes: “Social mobility is now less fluid in the United States than in other affluent nations. Indeed, a poor child born in Germany, France, Canada or one of the Nordic countries has a better chance to join the middle class in adulthood than an American child born into similar circumstances.”

In overall life expectancy, the United States ranks an astonishing 42nd, behind not only Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and all the countries of Western Europe, but also Israel, Greece, Singapore, Costa Rica and South Korea. The US spends twice as much money per capita on health care as any of these countries, but its citizens live shorter lives.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul200...

The reason is pretty obvious for any non free market fundementalist. In a lot of area's and certainly healthcare the for profit motive does not lead to the best results. When it benefits the whole society it's nothing but pure logic to organize products and or services together. Socialism is not about "big government", it's about people working together and understanding people should not serve the system but the system should serve us.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...

Free market fundementalism stands in the way of reforms to change the American health system that is not unsucsesful in the logic of how it's set up. The goal is to make money and a lot of money is indeed being made. Most people would agree that should not be the goal of a good healthcare system but still shy away from drawing the logical conclusions or are easily persuaded by right wing demagogy about socialism.

Answer 6

The beginning started with Regan when the pilots went on strike.  He made an executive order which in turn (and everyone knew this) BROKE THE UNIONS.  Then Bush went and scared the h**l out of the Republicans and told them that Social Security would be bankrupt by 2050 and privatized Medicare.  BTW it took only 3 years after that that Social Security did in actuality become bankrupt.  Americans ever going to wake up! The problem with that is it AIN'T coffee that you are smelling its a bunch of BS.

Answer 7

We (Me and my wife and boy) are super happy with our health care.

What are you using to "rank" health care? From what I have seen, and from speaking with canadians and Brits I know, we have the best medical care available here in america compared to many other countries.

Answer 8

define "rank."  If you are talking about technology/availability, we are probably right up at the top.  If you are talking about accessibility, there is a bigger problem.

Answer 9

Better check your figures sounds like you an Obama are a little mixed up he thinks China had a better infra-structure and you are mixed up on health care.

Answer 10

We also have one of the highest infant mortality rates as well.  I guess the government and employers just don't take people seriously. .

Answer 11

Towards the bottom in what category? fewer deaths? That's a good place to be. Next time provide some information to your rhetoric.

Answer 12

if it is so bad, why do so many people come here for treatment?

Answer 13

Because health care in this country has been politicized and commercialized as it has in no other nation on Earth.  

Answer 14

Shhhhhhhh.....

That'll ruin the Republican myth of us having the best healthcare EVER!!

Tis a great question though and I wish I knew the answer.

Answer 15

Because our health care system has one goal, to make money.  

Answer 16

Because the government sets the guidelines so that the misfits of America can have freebies and not pay for them its called Democratic Socialism .

Answer 17

Becuase they view not having goverment run healthcare as a failure. In this country the average american already pays around 40 percent to various taxes and fees...imagine if we added healthcare like the democrats wanted? Oh we could afford if by cutting programs but you don't do that as a democrat...oh no you just make the goverment bigger...and bigger...and bigger.

Answer 18

Better go take your Gov'ment given meds, bedwetter.

Canadian Health Care In Crisis

(AP) A letter from the Moncton Hospital to a New Brunswick heart patient in need of an electrocardiogram said the appointment would be in three months. It added: "If the person named on this computer-generated letter is deceased, please accept our sincere apologies."

The patient wasn't dead, according to the doctor who showed the letter to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. But there are many Canadians who claim the long wait for the test and the frigid formality of the letter are indicative of a health system badly in need of emergency care.

Americans who flock to Canada for cheap flu shots often come away impressed at the free and first-class medical care available to Canadians, rich or poor. But tell that to hospital administrators constantly having to cut staff for lack of funds, or to the mother whose teenager was advised she would have to wait up to three years for surgery to repair a torn knee ligament.

"It's like somebody's telling you that you can buy this car, and you've paid for the car, but you can't have it right now," said Jane Pelton. Rather than leave daughter Emily in pain and a knee brace, the Ottawa family opted to pay $3,300 for arthroscopic surgery at a private clinic in Vancouver, with no help from the government.

"Every day we're paying for health care, yet when we go to access it, it's just not there," said Pelton.

The average Canadian family pays about 48 percent of its income in taxes each year, partly to fund the health care system. Rates vary from province to province, but Ontario, the most populous, spends roughly 40 percent of every tax dollar on health care, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The system is going broke, says the federation, which campaigns for tax reform and private enterprise in health care.

Answer 19

c**p...America has some of the best health care. The problem is if you don't have insurance, you are screwed.  

Answer 20

According to the CIA (not exactly an American organization) on 2 key health care indicators.....

Life Expectancy - USA ranks 47th

Infant Mortality - USA ranks 42nd

Answer 21

Where do you get your info?

I lived in the UK and Japan. The UK has had to re-think their socialized health care and Japan is more like clinical treatment centers rather than personal doctors.  I have pretty good insurance and I have had good experiences here in the US. It is better than you think.

Answer 22

It doesn't. The socialized medicine of Canada, the UK and France just means that everyone has to wait and wait and wait much longer for substandard health care. Furthermore, the government decides who gets what treatment and the results have been much like what the n***s did in the 1930s.